Tag Archives: Photo

I have just read this book for a better understanding of Lightroom. I first discovered Lightroom when I took up photography again and began to learn about the art of digital photography. After a bit of research I purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements and got the basic principles of how it worked but I struggled to understand the connection of Adobe Bridge and I only understood that Adobe RAW was to be able to read my camera’s RAW files and nothing more. I then came across Lightroom read the reviews and decided to try it. It seemed to do all the things I needed and it didn’t need Adobe RAW however, I was a little confused as to why and Adobe had made it and where it sits in the workflow for a professional. I found Lightroom easier to understand and use; so I have found it my best programs for photo editing. Talking to other serious photographers, it appears that they all tend to use it more than Photoshop, which has been kept for just more extensive and complicated editing, as when required. This book co-oberates this idea as the intention of Adobe to create a more user friendly photo editing package and also recognising that not all photos will want or need extensive editing and also the feather in the cap of this software is the batch editing capability for commercial photographers who will need to do basic adjustments to RAW images for straightforward output.

However, Photoshop is much more than just an editing suit it offers photo management tools that allows you to archive and retrieve your photos in lots of different ways; so you can cross file your images and retrieve them using all sorts of methods from date, location, camera, lens, or search words. Lightroom is also compatible with Photoshop and an edited picture can be exported to Lightroom for further editing. This is a very good book to read it is 700 pages of detailed information and I would highly recommend reading it and keeping it handy on your book shelf.

I have received my marks and confirmation that I have passed! Which is great!

I am however, a little disappointed at the marks I got as I did my very best and read as many books as I could lay my hands on to fully understand the theory and concepts behind this course and put them in to practical practice.

I found my photographic assignments very challenging, and I spent a great deal of time reading for research and brainstorming for ideas which my blogs illustrate with my handwritten notes, sketched ideas. I was disappointed that as a result of all that my images are criticized as being ‘stock-photography’. It is also very ironic because at one point when I really couldn’t come up with any ideas I tried looking for stock-photos for inspiration but found nothing of any use. So clearly their is a great stock-photography web-site I don’t know about, or maybe I’m just not good at asking the right questions to find them. Anyway, these images came out of my head not anyone else’s but as I keep reading in every book OCA lists, “There is no such thing as a new idea” (unless you are an Assessor of cause) Maybe, my ideas were cliche; I don’t know, I haven’t seen enough photos like mine to know, but I guess the assessors have. I bow the their experience. My images were considered too obvious, hopefully in time my experience will teach my imagination to be more sophisticated and in turn more subtle. My new course is also helping with ideas of motifs and the rule-of-three which I can use in photo essays to be able to put over an idea in subtler ways as they do in Hollywood. Art like science works best with cross-fertilization of ideas, theories and practices. For example, Geologist and Paleontologists have a better understanding of their work by being aware of the others sciences.

With regards to my essay, I was congratulated on producing a good essay. I was criticized for reading too diverse range of books and authors; but at this stage of my course I am still trying to learn as much as I can whilst looking for something that can inspire me enough to confidently specialize in. I prefer portraiture work and the Film-Noir images I did with Nikon really gave me a buzz; so I think that style of work is my forte. I love using all kinds of lighting to create interesting / stunning images and just using natural-light I find boring. This is where I think I will start drilling.

Anyway, I passed and I now need 40 points to reach my 120 which I hope I can achieve for my next course which was a new challenge, film-making.

If anyone other than myself bothers to read this, please wish me luck!

Among my pile of books yet to read as part of my studies I had ‘About Looking’ by John Berger. I have only recently been introduced to this author through my Context and Narrative Course, I read his book ‘Ways of Seeing’ and watched the accompanying BBC TV program on You-Tube which I found very interesting. I then went onto read ‘Understanding a Photograph’, in preparation for my fourth assignment. The recent sad news of John Berger’s death prompted me to read this book, ‘About Looking’.

This book is made up of a selection of essays, Berger wrote from the mid 1960’s up to the late 1970’s.

His first essay examines how man looks and sees himself; how he regards animals and his world around him and compares this to how other animals regards themselves, man and the world through their eyes.

His next essay looks at pictures by August Sander the famous farm hands going to a dance photo and another image of a local musical band posing for their photograph and he discusses how their suits give away their status in society despite their smart attire.

Also included is an essay on the works of Paul Strand. The rest of the book moves away from photography and looks at works by other artists from the 17th century such as Hals through to Artist’s such as Francis Bacon and Giacometti of the 20th.

An interesting read, Berger had his own style of writing and if you have heard him speak you can almost hear his voice coming through the pages of the book.

He was clearly very passionate about art and I am sure a nice guy to have met. I am sure all who were fortunate enough to have met him will miss him.

For this assessment I chose to print the first page of my essay containing the image on photo quality paper through my Canon printer for better image reproduction as the image was taken from the internet and was only 72pdi in quality.

In the second envelope for ‘The Statement’ to the Police, I have included the hand written witness statement with the corresponding photos, printed with the same method through a third part high-street retailer.

When researching for my last assignment I read ‘One Way Street’ a selection of essays by Walter Benjamin and I read an essay about Franz Kafka, an author I had not come across before and I made a mental note to lookout for his work. My Tutor picked-up on my comments in my blog and recommended that I read some of his works a. Therefore I decided to read his works looking for ideas for my next assignment. To get myself started I made notes on the oxford dictionaries meaning for ‘context’ ‘narrative’ and the suggested rules. As I read his works, I took notes in order to help me find some mental visions that might be turned in to physical pictures. admittance-to-the-law

I have read through from cover to cover ‘The Essential Kafa’ and I have been inspired by a parable type story in the novel ‘The Trial’. This short story is about a country gentleman who seeks access to the law, but the man is told by the doorman that he can not grant him access. The country gentleman decides to wait until the doorman is given permission to grant him access, he waits all his life only to learn at the moment of death that the door was exclusively for him. However, this story led me to another similar story that I thought might make a stronger narrative in one picture.

This story was used in a T.V. episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘The Hunt’, first broadcast: January 26, 1962, Created by Rod Serling. I am unable to find a reliable source that can confirm the original author of this story. Some internet sources suggest that it is an old religious tale by an unknown however, Earl Hamner Jr. an American television writer and producer is credited for the story of ‘The Hunt’ in The Twilight Zone therefore I assume that the story is his. The gist of the story is that a man is on a road to Heaven and he is accompanied by his best friend which is his dog. Along the way he comes to a gate with a man standing by it, the Traveller asks the man where they are and the ‘Gateman’ informs him he is at the gates of Heaven; but when the man tries to enter with his dog he is told that dogs are not allowed and the Traveller is forced to decide between entering the gates or staying with his best friend.

I believe that this story has a stronger narrative to produce as a single photo. My idea is an image of the Traveller looking down at his dog as the Doorman or Gatekeeper tells him no dogs. Also I can use this scene as a metaphor to modern society and how our capitalist life style sometimes tests our moral metal. The Traveller is faced with a dilemma, should he be selfish and enter the gates alone for the imagined paradise beyond or stay outside keeping company with his best friend and putting his friend first. I believe that we are currently living in a very selfish world and that this test is being applied in one way or another every day; so I think this story is very relevant to our current life-styles.

For the location, I think that my local Anglican Church is perfect.

My first thought were the gates to the church but this would present problems of traffic, pedestrians and a difficult background; so a doorway is a better choice and the arched style ideal for the implied idea of a Holly entrance. Choosing a doorway eliminates the problems of traffic, pedestrians background and allows me to move my camera further away if required. I shall mount the camera to a tripod for better composition control and if I need to resort to Photoshop i can easily merge more images together.

My ideal location is the Choir Vestry doorway, my wife sings in the choir and I have spoken to the Vicar who is happy to allow me to use it as my location. I have a Labrador dog and a friend who has modeled for me before who can play the Traveller and a friend of my wife’s is happy to model as ‘Lucifer’. My thoughts for the Devil is a very pretty smartly dressed young lady, to represent the metaphor for temptation. She will be lit by a speedlight with an amber gel in a soft-box to give her warmth and another speedlight located directly behind her with a red gel in a large reflector dish to create a red rim-lighting / halo to suggest the source of the heat and a hint of danger. The traveller and dog will be lit by either natural day light or another speedlite (un-gelled) for daylight white balance. The camera will be set to tungsten or similar to trick the camera to create a cold look to the Traveller and dog. The Traveller and dog are between worlds and this region of space I imagine to be cold. Hell on the other hand is hot and should reflect this by using the corrective gel to alter the white balance for my Devil. By taking advantage of the white balance I can create a division between the worlds outside the door and that of inside and this warm contrast to the overall cold image will act as my punctum to the picture.

As you can see, I made sketches and drew a couple of storyboards to help me with ideas.